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| Newman and Patterson possible water partners |
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| Written by John Saiz / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Saturday, 24 November 2007 | |
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“If it doesn’t happen this year, at least it will be on their radar.” — Cleve Morris Patterson city manager Patterson City Council voted Tuesday to join with the city of Newman to lobby for federal dollars for a shared water treatment facility. The 4-1 vote directed city staff to join the county’s One Voice team, which goes to Washington, D.C., annually to lobby federal government officials for money for regional projects. However, there is no guarantee the cities will be able to get delegates on the team, let alone get any money. City employees will now try to make the treatment facility one of the few projects chosen to be advocated for by the One Voice team. The move marks the first time there has been public discussion of a partnership between Patterson and Newman to provide water treatment. Patterson’s water consultants have said the city will likely need a water treatment facility to keep providing drinkable water to residents. They estimated that it could cost close to $100 million to build the facility. Newman City Manager Michael Holland said the idea for the partnership started about a month ago during talks with Patterson City Manager Cleve Morris, who is Newman’s former city manager. “Our relationship dates back to his days here in Newman,” Holland said. Holland said the Newman City Council would likely decide on the matter at its Dec. 4 meeting. So far, engineers from both cities have crunched a few preliminary numbers to see if the project would have any cost savings for either city. “The numbers appear to be working out,” Holland said. Morris told the council that the early figures show there would not be any cost savings for building the facility, but there would be a savings of about $500,000 each year if the two cities shared one treatment facility. Officials from several other jurisdictions that want to be on the One Voice team have already submitted their plans. Morris said there is a good chance the city is too late to be part of this year’s team. Still, he wanted to get the application in so the county would be aware of the shared water treatment facility. “If it doesn’t happen this year, at least it will be on their radar,” Morris said. The Alliance — an economic development agency that works on behalf of Stanislaus County and its cities — will select the One Voice projects. An Alliance representative was not available by press time to discuss the possibility of Patterson and Newman making the team. Though city staffs from Newman and Patterson have not discussed the project with other jurisdictions, both Morris and Holland said other West Side agencies could join up. Councilman Sam Cuellar cast the lone dissenting vote. He said the lobbying efforts could help PCCP West Park, the company hoping to build a 7.5-square-mile industrial center on and around the Crows Landing Air Facility. He suspects one of the projects to be represented by the One Voice team will be West Park’s and worried that association could be taken as support for the West Park project. Cuellar also said it was too early to seek funding from the federal government for a project of which the council had only recently become aware. “It’s a little premature for us,” Cuellar said by phone Wednesday. Cuellar’s concerns were not enough to sway his colleagues, though, and the four other council members voted in favor of the proposal. “If we don’t jump on it now … we might miss out,” Mayor Becky Campo said.
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